This weekend I have … an hour, and I like sports docs.
‘Goliath’
When to watch: Begins Friday on Paramount+ and airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on Showtime.
This engrossing three-part mini-series about the N.B.A. great Wilt Chamberlain hits the expected biographical and historical topics, like all the other well-made basketball documentaries of the last several years. But “Goliath” distinguishes itself in two big ways: First, it uses an A.I. recreation of Chamberlain’s voice (Chamberlain died in 1999), and second, it features papercut puppets to depict some events. The animation imagery is unequivocally the good kind of distinctive, and it adds to the feeling of fable and wonder. The artificial narration sounds natural but feels strange and somehow unholy. New installments arrive weekly.
… two hours, and I like tension.
‘Full Circle’
When to watch: Now, on Max.
Timothy Olyphant and Claire Danes are among the big-name stars in this sprawling, layered thriller that centers on the botched kidnapping of a wealthy teenager. Written by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, the six episodes unfurl down unexpected paths, with the density and Tetris of a well-packed suitcase. “Circle” has some of the most lush and arresting audio style of any show in ages — you can hear not just the wine pouring into a glass but also its exact viscosity; the precise, sandy crunch of pebbly gravel; the thickness of the air in each room. The first two episodes are available now, and two more come out each of the next two Thursdays.
… several hours, and I want a saga.
‘The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem’
When to watch: Now, on Netflix.
Oh, thank goodness, Season 2 of this sweeping Israeli drama (in Hebrew, Arabic, Ladino and English, with subtitles or dubbed) is finally here. The show follows the Ermoza family in the 1910s, ’20s and ’30s, through wild lost loves, mercilessly unhappy marriages, young rebellion, political activism, fraught parental relationships, sibling favoritism and heaps upon heaps of painful secrets. Michael Aloni stars as Gavriel, a father who is both trapped and liberated, suffocated by circumstance yet, as a man, freer than his cruel mother, put-upon wife or excitable daughters could ever be. If you like looping, romantic epics, or if you miss the family strife on “Downton Abbey,” watch this.
